Newbie with $$ to spend

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Lilpoet

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I've been songwriting for a while, and I primarily work from a piano. There are tons of them around campus, so there's never a problem finding one to use. But I need to find a way to make a digital recording of a piano session. I also want to buy an acoustic guitar and begin to teach myself how to play. So, I'm looking for a 4 or 8 track digital recorder but I'm wondering the price range, which brand should I buy, if I need an expensive microphone to pick up the piano and which will work best to pick up the great range of frequencies, if I can plug up an acoustic guitar straight to the recorder or if I should just save the money and let a microphone pick it up? Please email me back; 'cause I rarely have time to surf. I'm working plenty of hours this summer in order to afford this stuff. Thanks.
 
Approximately, how much money are you considering spending?
 
spending

uhm, i'd like to get a microphone, acoustic guitar, and a 4 or 8 track digital recorder for about $1000 ... so the price on the digital recorder depends on the guitar mostly but i image 600 to 800 dollars.
 
Good Luck! ;)

I think it is going to be rather tough to get a Acoustic Guitar, Mic, and a Digitial Mulitracker for $1000 and make it sound anywhere near half-way decent.
 
it is possible

Youwill probably have to spend more than $1000 on this, but I'll give you some suggestions that can get you close. As for the guitar, that's up to you, you should be able to get a good used one for around $350. Recording piano requires a very accurate, clear, and neutral sounding mic, I would suggest a condenser mic since it is able to pick up everything more clearly than a dynamic mic. A particularly affordable one is made by AKG called the C2000B. It is currently on sale at fullcompass.com for $165 (this is what they quoted me and what I got it for). This is an amazing price and the mic is the best you can get if you want to keep your budget low. Until you get much better equipment I don't think you'll need better. You also should be able to pick up a digital multitracking device for not too much money if you find something used, particularly something which in no longer in production and which sells cheaply. I would suggest the Roland VS880 for this. It can be found on ebay for around $550 and should do the job quite well. There are of course other things you might find that you need in the process of recording songs, like a CD burner. So I figure these three initial items will bring you to about $1000 (550+165+350). But keep in mind there will be other stuff you will need that you haven't thought about yet. But to get descent digital recordings and to get a guitar I do not find $1000 unreasonable. Tell me what you think of all this.
 
Thanks for all the replies so far. I already have a cd burner, so that's not a problem. Using my computer as the recorder is problematic due to its lack of portability ... I also have a laptop, but it sucks and I'd rather have the digital recorder. Although, with a decent microphone (from Sony, about $80) and a Sony Recorder/Player Minidisc my friend recorded some sessions for me that were pretty decent in quality. The problem--his mini disc is not functioning now. At any rate, I plan to get an acoustic guitar for much cheaper than $300; I live in the DC Metro area and there are tons of good deals around.

Plus, if I need a superior quality recording from a microphone, a friend on campus got a grant last year and bought a $600 microphone. So if I need to do some really good stuff, I could borrow his. But the one suggested should work fine.

So what else would I need besides the digital recorder and microphone? And how trustworthy is eBay? I personally would feel more secure in buying from a merchant or a real store, even if that means paying a little extra (even if it's used).
 
Woods w-72 guitar ($140, and it sounds damn good)
Boss BR-8 recorder ($700)
AKG C1000s condenser mic ($150 on Ebay, $200 new)

Or you could just get the guitar, save money while you learn to play it, and then get a better recorder and an additional mic.
 
Cool--I saw the Boss 8 track recorder priced in that range at quite a few online sites ... i think i'll just borrow a friend's guitar and dedicate all the money to the 8-track and the microphone. Does anyone own that system? Is hard to use? Could I transfer the tracks to my computer easily with a line-in cable (I already have a line-in cable--it comes in handy for tons of things.) Should I look for any special features? Are there any things I should watch out for when buying one?

What are reference monitors? What does it do?
 
to address some of your issues:

buing from ebay can be dangerous, but it seems that most of the people that sell musical equipment on there are real dealers (music stores) that sell many items on ebay. This is good for you because they have a customer feedback section in their profile which says how good other people's transactions with them had been. Any dealer making money of eBay is absolutely paranoid of getting bad feedback from anyone. This is why I find buying from dealers on ebay to be safe.

To learn about reference monitors you should read some threads on them (there are many). just use the "search" function on this bulletin bord and look for "monitors". That should answer all your questions about that. Someone above suggested the AKG C100S. I found that it cuts out a lot of desired low end and is kind of peaky in the high frequencies (look at its frequency response chart on the AKG-acoustics webpage). It's not something I would use on a piano. I still stand by my C2000B, it sounds as neutral and accurate as you're going to get, which you NEED for piano (ask any professional who record piano frequently)
 
I dont buy dick if i cant test it right on the spot if its been removed from the package. and I dont trust the mail. I was able to find a korg d8 for 275.00 used for about ten hours. Its perfect but I tested it ten ways to sunday before the man got my money.

I do understand that there are services that hold the money in escrow while you test the gear before giving it to the sellers on ebay. so you can be satisfied the product isnt defective. If it is you will have no trouble getting it back.

I got my studio projects c-1 for 175.00
and my rouge Accoustic Electric 100 for 65.00

so this was done by me for 540.00(the condensers need a mic pre so add that to the total):cool:
 
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